American Airlines: Woman sues airline over burns to ‘genital area’ after flight hits turbulence causing hot coffee to ‘fall into lap’

A passenger on board an American Airlines flight is suing the carrier over claims her genitalia was badly burned.
Gina Mason, 68, was flying home from Baltimore to Detroit on February 11 when the captain came over the PA system and asked everyone in the cabin to take their seats due to bumpy air up ahead, according to a lawsuit filed August 13 in Wayne County, Michigan Circuit Court and removed to Detroit federal court last week. The suit says the flight attendants were in the middle of handing out beverages and snacks throughout the cabin when the turbulence began.

One of the flight attendants had parked their cart next to Mason, who was buckled up in seat 29A, then went to sit down. “During the turbulence, the beverage cart was shaking which resulted in the hot coffee pot that was left on top of the cart to fall off into [Mason’s] lap, causing her to sustain severe 1st and 2nd degree burns over her legs, thighs, and genital area,” the complaint states.

Mason’s lawsuit accuses American Airlines of not having used “due care and caution in securing their beverage carts during the flight,” and says the flight attendant was negligent in “failing to remove or secure the hot coffee pot on the beverage cart during extreme turbulence” and “negligently leaving the beverage cart parked directly next to a passenger’s seat during extreme turbulence.” On top of the burns, Mason says the incident also caused her anxiety and depression, according to the complaint.

She is asking for money damages, to be determined by a judge, for “physical pain and suffering, physical disability, incapacity, denial of everyday social pleasures and enjoyments, diminished quality of life, scarring and disfigurement, mental anguish, emotional distress, fright and shock, [and] embarrassment and humiliation,” along with reimbursement for legal fees and medical expenses. The Independent reached out to American Airlines officials and the attorneys defending the carrier against Mason’s lawsuit for comment but they did not respond.